The list of problems is well-known: A financial crisis. Climate disruption. Energy geopolitics. Food supply hazards.

What they show is that we're all connected, today like never before: economically, socially and technically. When a crisis occurs on one part of the planet, it can bring problems to another part, within days or even hours.

Yet this challenge is also an opportunity, and now is the time to seize it. People around the world are ready for change. And the planet is ready for it, too. Today, we are seeing the infusion of intelligence into the way the world literally works—the systems and processes that enable...

• physical goods to be developed, manufactured, bought and sold;
• services to be delivered;
• everything from people and money to oil, water and electrons to move;
• and billions of people to work and live.

Three things have brought this about:

• The world is becoming instrumented. By 2010, there will be a billion transistors per human, each one costing one ten-millionth of a cent.
• The world is becoming interconnected. With a trillion networked things—cars, roadways, pipelines, appliances, pharmaceuticals and even livestock—the amount of information created by those interactions grows exponentially.
• All things are becoming intelligent. Algorithms and powerful systems can analyse and turn those mountains of data into actual decisions and actions that make the world work better. Smarter.

Because we can: the technology is both available and affordable. Because we must: the shocks we've seen to so many systems show that the current approaches aren't sustainable. And because we want to. IBM is starting a conversation with the world because we think now is the time to make these changes for the better.